Quantum control and information processing

We review the recent developments in quantum control and its contribution to quantum information processing.     

NIRS Detection of Moldy Core in Apples

Moldy core of apples is undetectable until the fruit is cut open or bitten into, therefore it can pose serious problems to both producer and consumer. Removal of diseased fruits prior to storage would be most desirable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of VIS-NIR minispectrometers to detect moldy core in apples, on line. An apparatus which is qualified for on-line Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements was developed based on an off-the-shelf minispectrometer. Apples, cv. Red Delicious, were collected from several orchards before and during the commercial harvest, and were stored at 0°C pending the tests. The data were analyzed by chemometric procedures, specifically, by partial least squares regression (PLSR), and were classified by means of canonical discriminant analysis. The canonical variables were represented by the latent variables of PLS models based on the spectra. The accuracy of the classification results was high, in light of doubts regarding the moldy fraction threshold of 5%; in such a case the mold covers only the seed carpals of the fruit, where it might remain without really damaging the fruit. Improvements should aim to reduce errors in classifying low-level damage, and also in misclassifying some healthy fruits. The rate of testing (1 s per fruit) is acceptable for quality-control purposes, but should be accelerated for future packing-line implementation.     

Domain Formations and Pattern Transitions via Instabilities in Soft Heterogeneous Materials

Experimental observations of domain formations and pattern transitions in soft particulate composites under large deformations are reported herein. The system of stiff inclusions periodically distributed in a soft elastomeric matrix experiences dramatic microstructure changes upon the development of elastic instabilities. In the experiments, the formation of microstructures with antisymmetric domains and their geometrically tailored evolution into a variety of patterns of cooperative particle rearrangements are observed. Through experimental and numerical analyses, it is shown that these patterns can be tailored by tuning the initial microstructural periodicity and concentration of the inclusions. Thus, these fully determined new patterns can be achieved by fine tuning of the initial microstructure.     

Poly(imide-siloxane) films with controlled thickness

Polyimides containing siloxane moieties are used in some advanced applications. For example, these polymers can be employed as separation membranes in the form of self-standing, thin films. These products are formed by components of different polarities that have the tendency, at least partly, to separate in the final materials, with an impact on their final, bulk, and/or surface properties. The aim of this work is to study the dependence of the composition of the polyimide, poly(imide-siloxane) (PIS) and copolymeric PIS self-standing films differing in thickness on their properties. The important finding is that there is a rather large difference observed in the water contact angle on the film side oriented toward the air atmosphere during film preparation and that oriented toward a hydrophobic Teflon surface. Nevertheless, the gas transport properties of carbon dioxide and methane for these membranes are more influenced by the membrane composition than by the surface properties.     

Special Issue on Variational Inequalities: Consistent Conjectural Variations Coincide with the Nash Solution in the Meta-Model

Networks and Spatial Economics - We keep investigating the properties of consistent conjectural variations equilibrium (CCVE) developed for a single-commodity oligopoly. Although, in general, the...     

Biomolecular Simulation: A Perspective from High Performance Computing

High-Performance Computing is impacting on all biomedical sciences, including molecular biophysics. Here, we describe general parallel computing strategies (multi-threading and distributed computing) used in all the natural sciences, including molecular biophysics. Next, we describe how these strategies are applied in molecular dynamics simulations and enhanced sampling methods, either based on force fields, on density functional theory or on QM/MM potentials. As test cases, we focus on the widely used CPMD and GROMACS packages, along with a hybrid QM/MM interface coupling the two recently developed by a European team including the Authors. The review closes with a short perspective on the use of HPC-based biomolecular simulations. Additional information on optimizations and software adjustments to maximize code performance are provided in the Supporting Information.     

Scanning ion conductance microscopy: a convergent high-resolution technology for multi-parametric analysis of living cardiovascular cells

Cardiovascular diseases are complex pathologies that include alterations of various cell functions at the levels of intact tissue, single cells and subcellular signalling compartments. Conventional techniques to study these processes are extremely divergent and rely on a combination of individual methods, which usually provide spatially and temporally limited information on single parameters of interest. This review describes scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) as a novel versatile technique capable of simultaneously reporting various structural and functional parameters at nanometre resolution in living cardiovascular cells at the level of the whole tissue, single cells and at the subcellular level, to investigate the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. SICM is a multimodal imaging technology that allows concurrent and dynamic analysis of membrane morphology and various functional parameters (cell volume, membrane potentials, cellular contraction, single ion-channel currents and some parameters of intracellular signalling) in intact living cardiovascular cells and tissues with nanometre resolution at different levels of organization (tissue, cellular and subcellular levels). Using this technique, we showed that at the tissue level, cell orientation in the inner and outer aortic arch distinguishes atheroprone and atheroprotected regions. At the cellular level, heart failure leads to a pronounced loss of T-tubules in cardiac myocytes accompanied by a reduction in Z-groove ratio. We also demonstrated the capability of SICM to measure the entire cell volume as an index of cellular hypertrophy. This method can be further combined with fluorescence to simultaneously measure cardiomyocyte contraction and intracellular calcium transients or to map subcellular localization of membrane receptors coupled to cyclic adenosine monophosphate production. The SICM pipette can be used for patch-clamp recordings of membrane potential and single channel currents. In conclusion, SICM provides a highly informative multimodal imaging platform for functional analysis of the mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, which should facilitate identification of novel therapeutic strategies.     

Investigation of the thermal entry length in laminar wavy falling films

The use of liquid films flow offers solutions for the problems associated with the microgravity applications. The thermal entry length of laminar wavy falling films was experimentally determined under full gravity conditions by means of infrared thermography. A dependence of the entry length on the Reynolds, Prandtl, and Kapitza number as well as the ratio Pr₀/Pr_W between the Prandtl numbers at inflow and wall temperatures was found.